April 2017 will have been filled with remakes and remasters, not to mention the return of ex-members of RARE with Yooka-Laylee, so it is no real wonder to see that Beep Games Inc.are also back with Voodoo Vince Remastered, on PC and Xbox One. If you're too young to remember 2003 and the very first Xbox Box, Voodoo Vince was one of the few platformers to be released exclusively on Microsoft's first console. September 2003, that's precisely when Xboxyde was born, 4 years before turning into the website you love so much. We're not getting any younger, are we?
All comments (8)
Wouldn't it have been better to have created a PlayStationyde or GameCubyde? Also, what made you change from Xboxyde to Gamersyde? Or perhaps you guys felt that Xbox wasn't getting enough coverage by French/International sites?
How did most of the community at the time took to the change? And does this means that many of the very old community members from the Xboxyde days were pro-Xbox and are now pro-PlayStation?
I also never hear you guys talk much about Xbox's history, I know you give equal exposure to both consoles and PC games, but it feels like a lot of the Xboxyde's history isn't even mentioned - like it's some sort of taboo. I'm saying this because shouldn't you guys be more enthusiastic about Xbox if you even started a site about it?!
Those are just a few of the questions I have regarding the whole Xboxyde era since I wasn't a member at the time. It's just simply curiosity for curiosity's sake and there's no need to answer these questions. Also, please note that I have more follow-up questions depending on the answers to some of these.
The last time I would have died on my sword for a company was Sega, their first party output of games was wild, immense and varied while never reaching the pristine nature of Nintendo's main first party, you couldn't argue the above average variety which for me mostly hovered around exceptional.
Nowadays from the big console 3, they all offer something different to me which is why I have all the consoles with the Switch next on my list and I think it's the roots of those broad beginnings loving Sega that has made me appreciate more games in general.
So, I don't think it's as simple as switching the name of the site to whatever was dominant, popular, favourable or newest at the time, but more that Blim, Drift & Co realised they just have an appreciation of games and the name should reflect that.
That's what I believe the shorthand is anyway, the long hand is probably along the lines of "Sudeki sucked and was one of gaming's top 10 anime betrayals".
And it was an unfulfilled niche.
Blim created Xboxyde because he was an Xbox owner and he was a bit fed up with the forums he was posting in. He used to be an active member of the Gamekult forums (a professional French website), but he eventually felt it would be so much better if he could just make his own place in the Xbox world. Back then, Blim was much more enthusiastic about games than he now is, but he was clearly already more of a nerd than a hardcore gamer. What he's always liked is the way games are made, especially those who try to push the limits of the hardware.
Playsyde arrived later, mainly because some people were asking for some Playstation coverage, but like Grift said, it never truly worked as both communities remained apart. Then Blim and Snoopers (the guy responsible for our Gamersyde Diaries) decided they wanted to make a living with the website, so they merged both communities and Gamersyde was born. Soon enough though, it became clear that things had changed and that making money with a video game website was more and more complicated. Big US websites started to have exclusive deals and the fight was not fair anymore. Other factors made their dream even more impossible to realize, and Snoopers eventually went his own way and became a director.
Now the reason why we may have seemed less enthusiastic regarding Microsoft is simple. After two very good and promising consoles, we have not been convinced by Xbox One. Scorpio might change things, but today, I think we're more interested in games than in the hardware itself, and since exclusives are now often more appealing on PS4 (and more varied/numerous), maybe that's also why we seemed to switch more to PC and PS4. Also, the fact that I personally play on PC a lot now has sort of made it even less relevant for me to play on Xbox One. I am still pretty curious to see what Scorpio will bring, but I truly hope they have a few surprising exclusives up their sleeve (and I don't mean Forza 7 or Halo 6...).
I agree with everything you've said about XB1 and PS4 exclusives, though to be honest Sony was beating Microsoft in this area ever since around 2009-2010 with PS3. Though back then Microsoft was more interested in having exclusive content or timed exclusive content in third-party games, while Sony was focused on making first-party games.
Microsoft got accomodated at the end of the X360 era and was more than happy to just focus on their trinity - Halo, Forza and Gears - and Kinetic at the time. Sony had done the same at the beginning of the PS3 era, but quickly turned things around.
Something Richard Leadbetter from Digital Foundry said in the Scorpio's articles over and over was that this seems like a console from a Microsoft that is no longer happy to be second place and wants to do better, much better. He also mentioned that hardware means nothing without software, which we all agree. Hopefully Microsoft will start investing in more first-party games, because if they don't, better hardware or not, they will keep failing.
If the team made a new game that was the same style but open world like Yooka-Laylee that would be amazing.